Whats up with my cleaner shrimp?

[Dr_Hicks]

Anytime I have had a shrimp or crab molt, their appetite has not always been so stellar for a few days afterwards; however I cannot speak to the laying on the back trick.... that's all new to me.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Dr_Hicks

Anytime I have had a shrimp or crab molt, their appetite has not always been so stellar for a few days afterwards; however I cannot speak to the laying on the back trick.... that's all new to me.

Yeah he molted maybe every week or so, but I've never seen this, at the moment he's cleaning a rock but 10 minutes ago he had a "episode" lol my parameters are fine, I had about .15 ammonia this morning but changed the water right away!

[Nano]

Hmmm he is still cleaning now.. maybe ur was reacting to the slight ammonia content in the water? I hear they can be sensitive to that, maybe he's starting to "detoxify" lol

[Nano]

Originally Posted by nanomano

Hmmm he is still cleaning now.. maybe ur was reacting to the slight ammonia content in the water? I hear they can be sensitive to that, maybe he's starting to "detoxify" lol

and 20 minutes later he died. wtf? I dont understand what I am doing wrong lol... this is so off putting

[reefwars]

i would worry about where the amonia came from right now, amonia shouldnt be detectable at anytime if it is detectable even in small amounts its harmful but is also a huge sign that your tank isnt stable.

if you tank is on the stable/unstable fine line then a ittle time has to be given for the balance to work out.adding anyhing n ow or in the near future could keep it on this fine line.

another thing to note is inverts are very sensitive to salinity spikes and temp so be sure to make sure they are always consistent.acclimation is very important.


if your shrimp just molted it is also at its most vulnerable period, what do you have for fish?? notice any bad crabs you didnt buy??

[Blom]

Originally Posted by reefwars

i would worry about where the amonia came from right now

+1
Overfeeding or something dying. It doesn't take much to get a rise in ammonia when the tank is still "new".

[Nano]

Originally Posted by reefwars

i would worry about where the amonia came from right now, amonia shouldnt be detectable at anytime if it is detectable even in small amounts its harmful but is also a huge sign that your tank isnt stable.

if you tank is on the stable/unstable fine line then a ittle time has to be given for the balance to work out.adding anyhing n ow or in the near future could keep it on this fine line.

another thing to note is inverts are very sensitive to salinity spikes and temp so be sure to make sure they are always consistent.acclimation is very important.


if your shrimp just molted it is also at its most vulnerable period, what do you have for fish?? notice any bad crabs you didnt buy??

Well the ammonia came from a blenny I bought which died when I put it in after acclimating it improperly. I felt terrible but got the ammonia down to 0 quickly through a water change. I tried a bangai cardinal after and was successful with him. I just acclimated the blenny to long so I'd assume the oxygen ran low in the water he was in. Another noob mistake. I am goong to also test for any stray voltage tonight. Does anyone else have bad luck like me at first? Lol.

[daniella3d]

You should also test for copper.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by nanomano

Well the ammonia came from a blenny I bought which died when I put it in after acclimating it improperly. I felt terrible but got the ammonia down to 0 quickly through a water change. I tried a bangai cardinal after and was successful with him. I just acclimated the blenny to long so I'd assume the oxygen ran low in the water he was in. Another noob mistake. I am goong to also test for any stray voltage tonight. Does anyone else have bad luck like me at first? Lol.

absolutely when i first started reefing losing fish wasnt a big surprise, when i started in the saltwater hobby we(me and the girlfriend at the time) decided to do a clown tank to go with the cichlids i had going, we must have replaced that clown about 20 times lol no skimmers, no rock, no sumps,pumps or sand.

the biggest mistake just about everyone makes in this hobby is not going slow enough and telling yourself things will be fine ive done it and everyone on here has done it too its part of the learning process, sometimes someone telling you something isnt enough you need to try it for your self.....an old boss years ago use to tell me " if you dont know what the result of doing it wrong is you dont fully understand why right is right" basically even if we are sure we have something right knowing what can happen and how it happens when it goes wrong will make you that much smarter.

your doing fine just take it a bit slower, the amonia in your tank could have been cause by the blenny but in all honesty the blenny would have to be left to rot before it upset your water quality, the amonia is more than likely there because it cant keep up with the bioload yet , your cycle is finished but your tank is still very fragile so what you add now and in the weeks to come has to be done slowly so once you add something allow your tank to catch up and stabilize then consider something else.

now that you have some fish and some corals let the tank stabilize could take weeks for this to happen it all depends on the quality of your liverock, in the meantime it sounds like your going for a reef so nows a good time to think about corals or buy some corals(be sure theres no amonia though first)

your doing fine but save yourself some cash and focus on reading and asking questions.

ive had my 90g set up for 3 months now i havent added anything(frogspawn/small zoa colony/anemone) other than that its just been sitting there stabilizing growing pods and becoming healthy.after some time in the hobby you will set up many tanks and the more you set up..sell...take down..set up again the more you will realize that the rush of filling it isnt as important you wont even have to think about it it will just come second nature to let it stabilize.


if it helps some i lost 2 black clowns the other morning didnt even make it one night they didnt lol got bullied by my sixline and were thrown out of the tank....after 10yrs you would think i know that by now eh?? we all lose fish for different reasons the important thing is to learn from it and move on, dont let it discourage you but think of it as "now i know" no ones perfect by no means cheers mate and keep up the good work your well on the way to where you need to be